The present invention relates to a cowling brace supporting a cowling of a motorcycle.
For motorcycles, there have been manufactured a large number of types of models each in which a front head portion of a body is covered by a streamlined cowling so that a rider may be protected from a running wind pressure while decreasing an air resistance at the time of the running with an improved outer appearance.
Such a cowling is attached to the front head portion of the body frame of the motorcycle through a cowling brace mounted as a sub-frame structure. Furthermore, cowling peripheral parts such as a head lamp, a meter panel, and a rear view mirror are also attached to the cowling brace.
An existing cowling brace is integrally assembled by using a metal pipe or a press-molded metal plate, and various types of brackets and stays for attaching the cowling and the cowling peripheral parts, are welded thereto. Furthermore, there is also provided a cowling brace, in which only the stay portion for attaching the rear view mirror is separately formed to be attached to a main body of the motorcycle by means of bolt.
The cowling peripheral parts including the head lamp are attached to the cowling brace in a vibration isolating manner through cushioning members formed of elastic materials such as a rubber so as to prevent the vibration from reaching to each of the parts from the body and the engine.
However, as described above, since a cowling brace supporting a large number of various types of parts has an extremely complexed shape, and further, since it is assembled by utilizing a number of press molding and welding processes, it is difficult to keep the dimensional accuracy and to carry out the manufacturing process. There has been also provided a problem that if the positions of the brackets and stays get out of order only by a little amount, it is difficult to accurately mate, in positions, the divided portions of the cowling with each other, so that the beauty of the motorcycle may extremely be degraded and attachment of parts may become impossible.
Furthermore, although the cowling peripheral parts are attached to the cowling brace in a vibration isolating manner, it is difficult to completely absorb the vibration, and there has been a possibility that the durability and function of each part may be lowered. For example, there has been such a problem that a filament of a bulb of the head lamp becomes easy-to-cut by the vibration, or that the visual field of the rear view mirror becomes dim.